


Bite Me

by AwesomeEmpress



Category: Chicago (2002)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/F, Love/Hate, Period-Typical Homophobia, Slow Burn, a continuation of the movie basically, just with an abo twist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-14 23:50:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9210665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwesomeEmpress/pseuds/AwesomeEmpress
Summary: Roxie paused - just doing that, she knew it was all over – and looked back at Velma. The alpha was no longer showing her teeth, just smiling like she had shared a secret that only she knew of.God, Roxie just wanted to punch Velma’s teeth in. Or put a bullet in her. Whatever she could get away with, really. She’d take it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> combining two of my favorite things

“Goddamnit!”

That was the fourth audition this month and the fourth audition Roxie had managed to botch up. She cursed again, internally this time to save some grace in front of the beta pianist who’d been kind enough to play for her (without any added _incentive_ either, imagine that!), and tried to draw them back.

It was too late. Without a glance back, the alphas had vanished out the double doors that led to the sleazy jazz club she’d managed to fuck the owner into letting her borrow. Roxie was a hair’s width from shrieking, not entirely listening as she thanked the pianist and hurried off the stage to gather her coat.

Four auditions in a month’s time and she was still no closer to getting off the streets. Roxie had been banking on the trial’s publicity to get her a foothold in her new career, but she was hardly the only killer in this world and there were newer and prettier faces to put on the newspapers anyways.

Roxie was all washed out. Amos’s face flashed into her head unbidden, and she shook her head of that nonsense. Amos was old news, even older than her. As easy as it would be to slink back into his bed and his favor, she still had a chance. Someone had to be looking for her. She’d make headlines soon enough.

_America’s sweet-‘Hart’ omega, spiraling back into devilry!_

Except soon had turned to months on end without any success to speak of and she wasn’t a Hart anymore, was she? It didn’t matter. Truly, someone just _had_ to be looking for her. Someone out there was just waiting to catch her, to make her a _star-_

“You know, you’re really pretty good.”

Roxie’s gut plummeted but not in the way a gal with butterflies in her stomach does. Her head flicked back and there she was, Velma Kelly in all her grand and dark glory.

“Yeah.” Roxie replied, fixing her gaze on her cheap wool coat, embarrassment cutting into her voice, “What are you doing here?”

The alpha was leaning back on a banister, all long legs and sleek muscles as she pushed off and took a step forward, “I’ve been making around.”

Roxie bristled, a sudden flush of anger sweeping across her face and making her hands tremble around the thin lapels as she tied her coat shut roughly, “Well, if not fooled up by you, I'd be swinging right now.”

Months of solidarity (well as close as one could get in Chicago) had hardened Roxie a lot more than jail had. There was no Billy Flynn to keep her company and get her on the headlines, no Mama Morton to sweeten the deal, no reporters screaming her name, dying for a taste of what she had to say. She had been scraping by on good looks and running errands for busier and wealthier housewives. She wasn’t living, not yet, but she wasn’t dead either and she sure as hell made sure the alpha woman could see it on her face when she shot her a glare.

Velma smiled back in what she probably thought was a rendition of kindness but her teeth were sharp as knives as she bared them and Roxie knew better than to trust it.

“Come on, I was there to get you off. You should learn how to put things behind you.”

Roxie was never forward when it came to alphas. They were headstrong brutes with much more strength in one hand than she had in her entire scrawny self, but she found herself clicking across the floorboards and right in Velma Kelly’s face before she could remember better.

“Thank you.” She mocked, “I'll put that at the top of my list right after finding a job and an apartment with a John.” Which wasn’t going to happen anytime soon if she kept lousing around fighting a cockfight she’d never win.

Roxie turned on her heel and made to exit at the rear of the building (making sure to pass the owner’s office and blow him a kiss, just to ensure she’d be on good standing the next time she needed him) but a hand around her bicep tugged her back.

“Can you shut up and listen to me?”

The grip was hard and the memory of Fred Casely manhandling her made some gut reaction in her startle badly enough to lose her grip on the sheet music. The anger from before came licking back up the insides of her belly, burning hot through her veins until she felt like she could physically breathe fire out of her lungs.

“You really are something. Coming in here like some goddamn queen bee, full of advice for a poor slop like me. Let me tell you something, Miss Velma Kelly.” And when Roxie pointed a finger up into the alpha’s face, she suddenly remembered she was talking down a killer. It was good thing she had blood on her hands too then, “I got a new life now. And one of the best things about it, is it don't include   
_you_.”

“Fine,” Velma grit out, a minute later when she finished gawking down at Roxie, “I just thought we could help each other out.” Roxie sniffed back, bending down to get her papers and hurry on out before she became the third strike on Velma Kelly’s hit-list. She paused, startled, when Velma beat her to the floor, gathering up her papers with what looked to be a pout on her lips.

Sucking up hadn’t worked before and it wasn’t gonna work the second time, “Well, you thought wrong, didn’t you?” Roxie crossed her arms like it would act a physical barrier between her and the alpha.

“Listen to me. I talked to this guy in downtown. He says one chance hurts   
nothing these days, but two...” Velma looked up and there was an expression on her face that made Roxie feel awkward – ashamed almost, though she hadn’t a clue why. She flicked her eyes from the alpha’s face down to her hands before a flash of skin caught her eye. It was no secret that skin ship was the way to go if a woman wanted something, no matter the caste, but when Roxie’s gaze landed on the strip of Velma’s bare thigh she felt saddened instead of empowered.

For the longest time, Roxie had looked up to the Kelly sisters. They embodied the fame, the spirit and passion Chicago had to offer, and Roxie had spent every free moment trying to get connections to the two of them since she’d moved to the city. Now there was one at her feet, face pleading with ripped stockings and an offer. Things certainly changed quick.

“We can make a couple hundred a week. Think about it, Roxie. Faces back on the papers and names in the market. Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart.”

_Think about it, Roxie._ As if she hadn’t. A double act was big nowadays, and though she had never imagined doing it with a Kelly, she certainly had thought about it at least.

“Should it be alphabetical?” She asked, regretting it a moment later when Velma sprang to her feet, closer than she felt comfortable with.

“That could work.” The alpha said, eyes twinkling with hope and _god,_ was this how Roxie looked when she asked for something? No wonder she couldn’t get a break – with a face as pathetic as that, no one would take her seriously.

“A couple hundred? Maybe we can ask for a thousand. We'll work it.” Roxie made her voice low and breathy, satisfaction curling darkly in her gut when the alpha leaned in, drawn by her honeyed works. Quick as a snake, her hand shot out and grabbed her sheet music from the taller woman’s hands, “Forget it, it'll never work.”

Velma’s crestfallen gaze was just as sweet as any rouge chocolate and she just needed a second or two savor it. Roxie walked off, rolling her eyes when the alpha called out for her, persistent as the thick early morning smog that hung around the city, “Why not?”

Roxie was tired. She needed to find a John to take her home and let her sleep in his bed. She wasn’t getting enough sleep anymore, now that her alarm had been reduced to waking up to a man practically bulldozing her out of the apartment before the wife got back.

Velma, as worse off as she was, wouldn’t understand. She was an alpha – men would be kicking their wives out of the house for a chance to bed _her_. Still, Roxie raised a hand back in a makeshift goodbye, not bothering to look back when she called out, “’Cause I hate you.”

She was almost to the threshold that would lead her down a hallway straight to the rear exit when Velma’s voice filtered in, softer than she’d ever heard it, “There’s only one business in the world were that’s no problem at all.”

Roxie paused - just doing that, she knew it was all over – and looked back at Velma. The alpha was no longer showing her teeth, just smiling like she had shared a secret that only she knew of.

_God,_ Roxie just wanted to punch Velma’s teeth in. Or put a bullet in her. Whatever she could get away with, really. She’d take it.

-

 

Not even a week later, they were set. Velma’s hookup had, in a shocking turn of events, not turn out to be a bust, but rather a wealthy beta man with a peculiar taste of taking in ‘those who could bring in a killing’ as he put it – whatever that meant.

It didn’t matter. In the end, their boss had allowed them to set up shop in what could only be called the circus equivalent of vaudeville: an old-fashioned theatre that still held its own set of charms despite the age. Along with the job came a room for the two of them to share, which raised a few red alarms with Roxie but Velma (stubborn, stupid, _knot-for-brains_ Velma) shut her up real quick with a steely grip on her forearm and a glower that could make a grown man whither.

“Make like a doll and stand there looking pretty, yeah? You opening your trap is gonna cost us this sweet deal.”

“Don’t you tell me t-“

“ _Zip it_.” And there it was, that terrible _horrible_ tone a voice. It was like the devil was inside her head, taking control so quickly Roxie didn’t even question the need to obey, jaw snapping shut with a sweet little click. If Velma noticed her easy obedience she made no mention of it, too busy plastering herself to their employer and yapping on about this and that.

Roxie trailed behind, fuming with arms crossed over her chest in defiance. The devil escaped as quickly as he came, in one ear and out the other, but Roxie didn’t test it. She felt shaken and unsteady, her limbs achy like they didn’t really belong to her. She didn’t get to talk to the employer and meddle with Velma’s suckering, didn’t once enter her opinion (even though she _really_ felt it was her right to). Her jaw stayed closed the entire time, mind a mess but for those words.

_Zip it._

Roxie curled her fingers against her forearms as she eyed the line of Velma’s spine, wondering just where’d be the best place to stick a blade into it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “ _Look at me_ ,” Roxie snapped her eyes open and glared up at Velma who’s face seemed equal parts annoyed and amused, “There’s a good girl.” She cooed and Roxie felt her face flush with shame and fury.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i fell in love w this chapter  
> hopefully those who actually read this do too

-

 

Their room was a small thing, about as big as Roxie’s old bedroom and just as ugly. Roxie couldn’t bring herself to care as she trotted in, looking around her new space. The walls were a deep maroon, the shades on their sole window just a touch darker. There were two sets of everything which was a consolation; two beds, two bundles of sheets, two dressers, two-

Roxie paused, ignoring Velma and the other alpha’s chittering as she stepped deeper into the middle of the room. It was very obvious where the split in the room was – a boundary Roxie was going to lord over – and there it was. A vanity.

There was a childish grin splitting her face, she could feel it but she didn’t care. She sat on the plush chair and placed her hands reverently on the polished wood. From what she could remember of him, her daddy was a fine whittler, always lugging around chunks of wood to refine later on. She knew good wood when she saw it and the way the mahogany gloss seem to wink at her had her feeling all sorts a ways.

It wasn’t as large as the ones the richy, bitchy housewives she’d worked under had, but it was beautiful. There was a large oval mirror set in the wood, mini lightbulbs surrounding it like a halo around an angel. Roxie, for the first time in a long _long_ while felt love in the air, grinning with all her might at her reflection in the mirror.

She’d always wanted a vanity as a little girl and the wish never truly outgrew her. Now she had one just like the gals in the big screens that powdered their face and wore diamonds for every outfit because they could.

“I’ll be seeing you ladies to work out schedules later. In the meantime, I hope the room is to your liking. Night to ya both.” Roxie nodded absent-mindedly, too busy watching the reflection of her in the mirror that had lips as red as roses and pearls wrapped around her throat and pinned to her hair.

This was it. She hadn’t even _started_ yet and things were already looking up, looking brighter-

“Quit gawking and get your luggage, I ain’t no bellhop.” Velma called, passing by on her way to the far left side of the room and disrupting the picture-perfect Roxie in the mirror. Roxie scowled, her true reflection just as poor and unsightly as she remembered it.

“Oh come off it already. Don’t you get tired of nagging all the time?” Roxie bit out, smoothing her palms out over the wood to ease some of the tension coiled in the small of her back. Velma scoffed and Roxie’s eyes snapped to her in the reflection, glaring as the alpha rummaged through her rugged carry-on to sort her clothes into the dresser.

“And another thing, why you keep dragging me off all the time, keeping me outta the picture. You said this was a two-woman act but you sure ain’t keeping up your end of the deal.” Velma shuffled through the drawers, not paying Roxie a lick of attention. Roxie felt herself burn hotter and struggled to reign in her temper. She was failing miserably and she knew it but couldn’t quite bring herself to care yet, slamming her hands on the desk and propelling herself up and around the chair.

Up closer, Velma avoided her stare and Roxie only crowded her further, demanding her attention, “Don’t think I’m gonna let up, not even for a _second._ You think you can tear me out of the frame well then you got another thing com-“

Her gut plummeted and her skin broke out into goosebumps suddenly and Roxie floundered for a moment trying to figure out why when Velma’s hand shot out like a viper out of grass. There were several mixed signals flashing in her brain, to duck, to block, to flee, but none of them got through so Roxie just shut her eyes and clenched her teeth, not at all a stranger to a slap across the face.

Instead though, Velma’s forefinger and thumb dug into the soft flesh of her cheeks, the alpha’s hand wrapping under her jaw. Roughly, Roxie was hauled forward and she grunted.

“ _Look at me,”_ Roxie snapped her eyes open and glared up at Velma who’s face seemed equal parts annoyed and amused, “There’s a good girl.” She cooed and Roxie felt her face flush with shame and fury.

Roxie brought her hands up and dug her nails into the alpha’s arm, but Velma’s grip only tightened warningly.

“ _Listen_. I’m only going to tell you once. _I_ am the veteran here, I conduct the business. _You,”_ And Velma shook Roxie’s jaw for emphasis, “keep your mouth shut and just focus on dancing, alright? We gotta deal and that’s to perform a sister show; can’t have you mucking it up now can I, _sweetpea?_ ”

Velma’s grin eased over her face slowly, as sweet as rotten fruit. Her grip lessened and Roxie knocked her hand away completely, crowding in closer until they were almost touching chest-to-chest. The devil was running through her veins, whispering at her to fall back, to defer, but his control was grainy and Roxie broke free of it easily.

Velma almost looked surprised when she saw Roxie’s finger pointing accusingly right in her face, but honestly, she should’ve be thankful it was only a finger and not the gun Roxie wished it was.

“Bullshit.” Roxie hissed and Velma’s eyes flickered from her hand to her face, eyes narrowing.

“Excuse me?”

“I said _bullshit._ You need me, _Miss Velma Kelly_ , or you wouldn’t have bothered to look for me. Wouldn’t have gone down on a knee in front of me if there was even the slightest chance you could make it on your own.”

Velma’s eyes narrow impossibly further, eyes glinting. The devil rang in her ear screaming _danger._

“Oh and I suppose that makes you special then?” Velma asked darkly, tone sharp as shattered glass as she rolled out her syllables slowly, like she was giving Roxie a chance to take it back.

Not a chance in hell, Roxie was going to get her dues.

“Special enough to get an alpha at my feet beggin’ at me like a pup.” Roxie’s grin was a knife all its own and she could see it flash in the reflection in Velma’s eyes, digging into her pride and ego like they were made a mush.

Velma’s face darkened, thunder in throat when she snarled. Roxie flinched, appalled – no one had ever growled at her like _that._ The devil whirled at the tone and seeped into her bones while Roxie stood shocked, working her legs and making her dash back to the vanity like there were hot coals under her feet. It was a tactical retreat, Roxie reasoned, fingers twisting into her dress anxiously. She sent another mean stare at Velma to let her know she hadn’t been cowed but the smirk on the woman’s face went unconvinced.

With a huff and a swift turn of her head, Roxie dismissed Velma and set to dragging her bag to the bed and settle into her place. Brutes like her couldn’t be reasoned with.

“Knotheads,” Roxie muttered under her breath, wincing when Velma’s dark chuckle cut through the room.

“I meant what I said before, you really oughta let things go more often.” Roxie ignored her, carefully pulling out her jewelry box. It was so much lighter than she remembered. She slipped off her heels, sighing contently when her socked feet came into contact with the pink rug flooring. It was a monstrosity to the eyes but as her toes curled against it, she found it wasn’t too bad. She always did have a thing for soft stuff anyways.

Roxie waddled over to her vanity, carefully placing her jewelry box down on it so the gilded feet wouldn’t scratch the wood. She could feel Velma’s stare digging into her back and across her shoulders, but resolutely kept her head down, opening the box and straightening any stray jewelry.

“Keep your things to your side of it eh?” There it was again, Velma Kelly’s infamous nagging. Even worse was the possession stark in her voice.

“ _Your_ side? _”_

“No shit.” Velma threw her a half-hearted glare and Roxie bared her teeth before she remembered her manners. If Velma Kelly wanted to act a savage that was her, but Roxie would be damned is she fell down to her level.

“Now why on Earth would _you_ need a vanity?” Roxie complained, lilting her voice.

“As sweet of you to say I don’t need it, I do. You’re lucky I’m even considering sharing.” Velma searched her pockets and brought out a case of cigarettes, flicking one on easily.

“Open the window will ya?” Roxie murmured automatically. Amos had a tendency to smoke when he got stressed and he _always_ forgot to open a couple of windows. The smell would stick and then the apartment stank of his sweat and smoke, making it impossible to bring someone over.

“Yeah, yeah,” Velma replied just as quickly, making her way to the window. Roxie snapped out of her memories like a band stretched too tight then released, huffing loudly. Even now Amos wouldn’t leave her be.

She addressed Velma, though it was a struggle to pick who the lesser evil was between the alpha and Amos, “I don’t need your permission for nothing. It’s my vanity. Ain’t there a rule somewhere that the younger one gets the goods? Let the mirror have a fresher, sweeter face yeah?”

Velma snorted, slamming her dresser drawers closed a snap of her hip. A minute later she brought over toiletries to her side of the vanity and that was the end of it, no matter how many dirty looks Roxie threw her way.

 

-


End file.
